Master Plan of the Fox-Hunt Community Park
The Allegheny River Trail in Clarion County, (ARTinCC) - our full Board and key Volunteers – respectfully seek your financial support for 2024-we have big goals ahead. First, we want to highlight recent accomplishments, as a direct result of your help:
• Since our founding in 2018, we secured ownership of the first mile of the trail.
• Purchased several acres of land just north of Rt. 58 Bridge in Foxburg, a perfect site for a small park, including a long stretch of river access.
• Your previous generosity funded bike trail engineering design and cost studies, including selection of a professional park planning design firm – see the attached Master Plan.
• Donations received met certain match requirements for PA DCNR and DCED grants to build the first mile, design the Park, and begin construction of a large 80-spot parking lot to serve the Trailhead and Foxburg.
• Government and foundation funding so far totals over $750,000 – none of which would have happened without your considerable support. Additionally, thousands of hours of volunteer time and equipment helped prepare the land in advance of the 2024 grant dollars flowing. (See our Progress Reports on our website at https://artincc.org/news).
2024 begins with the selection of contractors to build the first mile of trail and much of the parking lot. The largest construction grant, announced in Oct. of 2022 finally allowed the preparation and solicitation of bids in late 2023. This year, construction sights and sounds should be obvious and exciting to behold, once required permits are obtained. More grant applications for the next major steps in our transformation of the region will be submitted soon, with the following projects and initiatives outlined below:
• Additional funding to complete the parking lot and secure various technical permits for construction of the Park. A prime component and major priority is a kayak/canoe launch with road access and adjacent parking.
• Stepped up negotiations with 9 landowners to get easements to complete the trail all the way to Emlenton. Our hope is to resolve these in 2024. Once easement concerns are settled, we need boundary surveys of these nine parcels, addressing dangling issues in title history, raise match dollars, and prepare paperwork to seek DCNR 50% funding of at least $300,000 in total costs to buy the easements. Then, we will only need the dollars to build these remaining 2.2 miles of trail.
• Finally, the park will be built in phases; final design and funding for the bulk of the park amenities’ will unfold in the future along with our efforts to tackle the foregoing priorities.
• Many agency and foundation grants have filing deadlines in Jan. through May, thus an urgent need to now raise match dollars; 20+ years of experience throughout PA prove that if you build a trail or a park, people will flock to experience it, and economic activity in the region will flourish. Your help will make it so.
We sincerely need your help to move forward, so please consider a meaningful gift if possible in January of 2024, or shortly thereafter. Stated simply, no match dollars means no or fewer grant applications. To donate:
Click on the “Donate Tab” and the Supporter at the upper left of the Home page or our website at www.artincc.org to make a credit card donation through Paypal; or, Mail a check to ARTinCC, c/o Robert L. Jennings, JR., P.O. Box 325, Foxburg, PA 16036.
All gifts will be acknowledged for tax purposes; no amount is too small or too large, whether it be $50 or many thousands of dollars, because such a wide variety of donations add up, and have gotten us to where we are now.
You can get additional information on what we are doing by calling 412-721-7615, emailing us at info@artincc.org or speaking to a Board member or key Volunteer that you may know.